Ex-Army coach Gregory not spilling any beans about game vs. Knights

Morgan State's bus will pull into West Point sometime Thursday afternoon. Greg Gregory will turn from the team's offensive coordinator into tour guide.

Sal Interdonato

Morgan State's bus will pull into West Point sometime Thursday afternoon. Greg Gregory will turn from the team's offensive coordinator into tour guide.

Gregory called West Point home for 16 years. He worked his way up from a part-time Army assistant to running the offense from 1989-97. Gregory's children — Tate, Grant and Layne — were born on post.

"I feel like I know the place inside and out," said Gregory, as he was going over his game plan for Army from his apartment in the Baltimore area on Wednesday. "Of all the places I've coached, and I've coached in several, that's the one place I've always said I would go back to. If I got the opportunity, I would go back there."

On Friday night, Gregory returns as the enemy when Army hosts Morgan State in its season opener at Michie Stadium.

This will mark Gregory's second time back since he was part of a staff that was released after the firing of head coach Bob Sutton in December 1997. Stan Brock brought in Gregory as a one-day consultant when Army was moving back to the wishbone in the spring of 2008.

"I came back under the cover of darkness," Gregory said. "They flew me up. I was with him for four to five hours and flew out. That day I don't think he wanted people to know I was up there."

Gregory, who had success as an offensive coordinator at Ohio, South Florida and South Alabama, was out of a job last season. South Alabama didn't retain Gregory after he helped the Jaguars to a 23-4 record in their first three years.

"No reason was ever given," Gregory said. "I went through a very tough year. Financially, I took a tremendous hit."

Gregory, who has followed Army closely since his departure, spent the year off, putting together a spread offense he wanted to run if he got one more chance. Morgan State coach Donald Hill-Eley, who shares an agent with Gregory, gave him that chance.

"We are going to see if it's any good or not," Gregory said.

When asked if his offense might have some wishbone tendencies, Gregory said, "You don't know what I'm running and nobody knows what I'm running and no one is going to know what I'm running until probably the third or fourth snap of the game."

Army coach Rich Ellerson mentioned during his weekly press conference that Morgan State could have "a few pages in their playbook that we've haven't anticipated."

Ellerson was expecting to see juniors Seth Higgins and Robert Council at quarterback. Think again.

"We may play four Friday night," Gregory said. "I'm being serious. I'm being dead serious. We may play four guys on Friday night. We've got two that will play for sure (Higgins and Council) and the third one (Moses Skillon) might be better than all of them when it's all said and done. They are talented enough. We just have to see how they come out under the bright lights. Are they going to panic or are they going to play the way they are capable of playing? That's the big thing."

Gregory is trying to make Morgan State his home. He said he's not using the school as a steppingstone to a job at a bigger school.

"I'm here to try to win games," Gregory said. "Coach Hill is probably in the same situation as coach Ellerson is in. We better win. Nobody wants to talk about that. But reality is reality. We got to win or we won't be here. They have to win or he won't be there."

For 60 minutes Friday night, Gregory will be plotting to derail the season of the college he holds closest to his heart.